hey I don't know much about computers but could the ram be upgraded in this? What's the main differences between windows and linux? do windows games (forball manager etc) still run?
Any help would be much appreciated

hey I don't know much about computers but could the ram be upgraded in this? What's the main differences between windows and linux? do windows games (forball manager etc) still run?
Any help would be much appreciated

:)

Main difference is that Linux is open source. That means anyone can write programs for it. Also Linux is totally free, and around 95% of programs are too. There are ones you can pay for. As for the games, well some will and some won't. You would have to use WINE and/or plays on linux. Google will x work under wine, and it'll open a new world. :)

>> What's the main differences between windows and linux? do windows games (forball manager etc) still run?

erm... different kernels, run time libraries and device drivers? and no, no program writen for windows will work under any linux OS, and vice versa, without emulating the various parts of each OS in the other. So, you can run something like WINE (a windows emulator) under Linux, and run a windows program from WINE, but it ain't gonna be pretty or easy. The biggest downside is the need for different device drivers, so you may find a lot of hardware and peripherals don't work, and the windows driver CDs you got with them won't help. In my case I had to wait around for a year while someone wrote a useable driver for a TV card I had, and that was having done my research and buying one I knew would have a good chance of being supported; faik the ATI tv tuner users are still waiting... :p

That said, other than games, pretty much everything has a compatible windows equivalent under linux. Instead of MS Office just use OpenOffice. For Internet Explorer use Firefox (same as using it under windows). Photoshop / GIMP. Outlook / Thunderbird. MSN, AOL, Yahoo messenger / GAIM. That's pretty much all I use on windows :) Plus side is almost everything is free to download and use under linux.

>> could the ram be upgraded in this?

considering the age of the system, I'm guessing quite likely, probably hitting a max chipset limit around 2 to 4 GB, probably only has 2 ram slots too. Chances are there's 2 x 256 MB in them too, so you'd have to remove half or all of it to upgrade.

I would say that the best one to use if you are coming straight from Windows is OpenSuse, probably the best Linux disto around (my opinion of course)

I run OpenSuse on a couple of machines, 64 and 32 bit versions, have done for years. It is very slick and a breeze to install. Some say Linux is hard work but I think my Vista 64 is worse. You can do everything from the GUI these days but have the power of the cmd line if you want it.

Linux is free, it's geeky, it's fun to mess with, no inputting of a silly key, there are about a million versions (ok I'm a woman so I exaggerate! Still you're not tied to one version, if you don't like it you apply for another free cd, or you download a different one.) I feel about linux the way some VW beetle owners flash their lights at other beetle owners. Remember around 80% of all web pages are hosted on Linux! Add to that you can boot it from a cd and see if you like it before you commit totally and it's fab!

Very hot indeed. Excellent for people needing a PC to wordproces or browse thed internet with.

By the way when my PC broke last year, and while waiting for Nehalem, for 6 months I used a PC slower than this (Celeron 2.8ghz), with little to no hardships and I am a huge, and intensive computer user.

Because it's free and runs on computers that cost £80? If your PC has 4GB of memory and a top end graphics card I'm sure Vista runs fine!

It's also very useful for the less technologically inclined, since you don't have to run any anti-virus software. I'll admit that installing can often be troublesome if your hardware isn't supported, but once it's installed it works great. On my laptop it installed no trouble and everything (wireless, card reader, multimedia buttons, etc) worked out of the box, but on my girlfriend's we couldn't even get the install CD boot. But at £0, I say no harm done.

Because it's free and runs on computers that cost £80? If your PC has 4GB of memory and a top end graphics card I'm sure Vista runs fine!

It's also very useful for the less technologically inclined, since you don't have to run any anti-virus software. I'll admit that installing can often be troublesome if your hardware isn't supported, but once it's installed it works great. On my laptop it installed no trouble and everything (wireless, card reader, multimedia buttons, etc) worked out of the box, but on my girlfriend's we couldn't even get the install CD boot. But at £0, I say no harm done.